Stacked Shelves

Ohhh. I found another. I can easily check off all the steps of the first two parts of the Hero’s Quest for Teodora, the heroine of The Undrowned Child . The return part doesn’t follow exactly, but some of those steps are taken. What a surprise, too. I thought it was going to be a tale about mermaids (no pun intended). Instead, The Undrowned Child is about ancient prophecies and several centuries of the history of Venice. Yes, mermaids play an important role, but Teodora is a human girl, albeit with special gifts. She is the undrowned child of the title and, along with a young Venetian boy, helps to save Venice from an ancient enemy, who is intend on destroying the city. The novel is replete with flying cats, ghosts hoping to redeem themselves, magic spells, statues that come to life, and really wonderful mermaids (who learned human languages from sailors—it’s always “talk like a pirate day” among the maids). It’s a great read and seems all very new to me (a new twist on the hero’s q...

Everyone should read at least one book by Mark Haddon. And if you’re an anglophile like me, read more than one. He has written many books for children (and writes poetry), but his name became known outside of Britain with the “adult” book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time . That book is often marketed to be about a boy on the Autism spectrum, but it’s much more than that. It’s a genre mash-up of mystery, bildungsroman, and dysfunctional family life. And it’s excellent. His other adult book, A Spot of Bother , is a very funny look at a family falling apart and then back together again. I almost want to call Haddon “Franzen super-lite.” He writes about families in a very funny, very cheeky British way. Boom , Haddon’s latest book for children, also features some odd families and, more importantly, aliens. It’s so much fun. Haddon pokes fun at goth teenagers, unemployed dads who fly model planes all day, and sci-fi fans who find the idea of populating another planet j...

I hadn’t intended to read the entire “Relic Master” series by Catherine Fisher. My idea was to read the first book, The Dark City , so I could know enough about the books to recommend them (or not). But I read the first and now will probably read the rest. The reason it got me hooked is a little twist at the end, but I won’t reveal it. For the most part, this is a typical fantasy novel… set on Earth in some dystopian future or on another planet in its dystopian present. As with many fantasy novels, everyone lives rather medievally: The people live day to day hunting and farming. But, as the title of the series implies, there are these relics from another time (one is recognizable as a telescope). A group of holy people gather the relics and revere them as sources of great power. Other people, the Watchguard, seek to control the world and every little peon in it. Typical fantasy stuff. The book is well written. There’s nothing that makes it stand out as exceptionally good or bad. An...

I really wanted to like The Wikkeling , a dystopian novel by Steven Arntson with illustrations by Daniela Terrazzini. The book got some good reviews, dystopian novels are one of my favorite genres, and I need some horror books to review for our library’s next cable show (during which we recommend books to our local audience). But I found so many problems with this book that I’m just left disappointed. The author paints a picture of a future where children are constantly watched by devices, including bedroom cams. Cars honk advertisements and everyone is connected by cell phones. In school, all the children do is prepare for standardized tests, which determine if they’re fit for better jobs or have to be lowly sanitation workers. No one washes dishes anymore – everyone is extremely germ-phobic – and everyday items are used and then discarded. Guys, this isn’t some far off future. This is now for some kids. A school environment where they’re drilled in the correct answers for standa...